Photo of the Week 2026-06-29

 

' St. Lawrence Sunrise - L'Islet-sur-Mer '

On the way home from PEI, we stopped overnight in L'Islet-sur-Mer, a quaint Quebec village on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River not far from Quebec City.

Of course I had my phone with me for some photos while I was out on the course, but I also took a "proper" camera to take advantage of any special opportunities that arose. Up early on our day of departure, I grabbed the camera took a walk down to the wharf on the St. Lawrence River ...

 

I stepped off the break-wall to walk along the cocky shoreline. Moving east, just past the concrete wharf face, I saw a lone tree perched higher up on the riverbank and framed a shot with it back-lit by the warm clouded morning sky.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-09-15

Cameras go with me most places, and yes even on a golf trip to New Brunswick. An earlier trip offered more fall colour and I took time for more photography, visiting Grand Falls, and checking out other locations. This trip, nursing a back issue that had the potential to have me on the sidelines watching my golf buddies, I focused on a rehab regimen and shot very few images ...

 

' NB Camp Morning '

 ... and most of those were around the 'camp' (cottage to us back in Ontario) while I was shuffling about early in the mornings trying to get loose . One morning, after coffee I went for a stroll outside and noticed the sun streaming through an opening in the trees to warm the trunk of a tree. There was steam coming off the tree so I grabbed a camera and worked a composition to capture the scene.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-04-21

 

This week, a set of images from a winter walkabout through the southern section of Preservation Park, to capture some winter woodland character(s) ...

 

' fenzy '

' disarray '

' swoop '

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-02-24

 

A recent presentation on B&W photography got me thinking that it's been a while since I processed or shot anything specifically for B&W. So with that in mind, I had a go at B&W 2 different ways ...

 

1. A reprocessed colour image from a recent post in B&W

 

' B&W maple morning '

 

2. A winter reshoot at the location of a recent post, shot for B&W processing

 

' winter maple morning '

I'm not sure that either work better than the original colour version, but it was an interesting exercise and another part of 'The Journey'

 

... the original ...

 

' golden maple morning '

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-01-08

A couple of months ago I decided to visit Halfway Log Dump in Bruce Peninsula National Park. The road in is not maintained during winter and is closed from early winter to late spring. I thought I would take the opportunity to go before the road was closed.

The shoreline along Georgian Bay at this location has provided many photo opportunities since my first visit over a decade ago. This time I would continue recent work on ultra-wide angle compositions, this time with my RF 14-35mm.

Though ultra-wide angle focal lengths can be used for stunning compositions, it requires practice to become proficient in their use, as I am experiencing while I work with focal lengths of 11mm and in this case as wide as 14mm. I made a number of successful images during this outing and in some cases worked a particular subject or view in various ways as I gain more comfort shooting this wide.

 

At one location, an old weathered cedar on a rock ledge caught my eye. My first instincts for a framing had me too far away, surprisingly so and I moved to the edge of a crevice using the lens zoom a bit to frame a shot (version A below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not satisfied, I moved back a step, zoomed back out to 14mm and included a spruce standing above the background treeline as another point of reference. When I reviewed the images on the computer, this ended up being my favourite version.

' old cedar on ledge '

Before finishing with this scene, I moved even closer to the point where I had to remove and set my back pack and tripod down to step off the main cliff onto a ledge in the crevice. Even then I braced my foot on the other side of the crevice to lean slightly more towards the cedar (version B below). Upon review, this wasn't what I was looking for either.

 

' old cedar on ledge -B '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm enjoying the challenge of working ultra-wide and have made some satisfying images but that first stand out image is yet to be made.

 

Oh yes ... as things turned out and real winter weather yet to arrive, Emmett Lake Rd. was still open when I passed by most recently. Perhaps I will change another visit.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-08-07

 

' birch in evening light '

I just love how the evening light was kissing these dual birch trucks off the waterside deck at our cottage.

We have this birch one one side and another with triple trunks at the roadside. Both catch my eye every time I walk by (which is often) and I feel like there is always something to capture with my camera.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-07-25

 

' the house beyond '

While on our recent tour of Scotland, we met fellow travelers Mark and Karen from Colorado. As it turned out, Mark is a teacher of photography and fine photographer.

Lynn had called me over to a garden of daisies that Mark had been using as a foreground element in his compositions of Melrose Abbey. One challenge of photographing at the location was the intrusion of security fencing that was in place around the abbey while a structural survey is conducted. Mark had chosen to shoot the flowers low and close in the frame to block the unsightly industrial fencing and Lynn wanted me to see what he had captured. It was a lovely composition, I'd show it to you but to this point he has chosen not to publish the image so you can see my mimic of it via this link.

 

Conversations with Mark that followed on art, creating, composition, seeing and sharing what we were capturing were very refreshing. I have always enjoyed the interaction with other photographers. Mark's willingness to share what he was seeing through his eyes and having a fellow creative to interact with, was a welcome surprise.

 

While the Abbey was certainly a main focus during our stop in Melrose, Mark helped me remember that there were interesting compositions all around and to look beyond the 'snapshot'. With that in mind I made this 'POTW' by zooming in to eliminate adjacent distractions and isolate just a part of the scene allowing the trees to be used as a partial curtain that invokes curiosity as to what is beyond.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2020-11-16

  

Certain trees will always catch my attention ... in particular, stands of  Birch, Aspen and Poplar will grab my eye and the lens of my camera.The alignment of their white to grey trunks stand in contrast to the surrounding foliage and provide a strong vertical element for any composition.

 

Fall Aspen Grove

 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2020-10-26

 

There are certain subjects or scenes that repeatedly catch my eye, some I have photographed multiple times, some successfully, others not. 

 

This tree at Wilson Flats has been catching my eye since I first visited quite a few years ago. I've never been able to capture it in a way that I like ... until it stood in it's brilliant fall colour, under the sun on a day of broken clouds ...

 

that tree

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-14

 

woodland spirit

I've long pondered a project that would have me presenting a collection of images  conveying the sense of spirit I sense in some members of the arboreal community. I'd started a working document to explore the lexicon such a collection would use to title and describe such images. Those that follow my photography may (or may not) know how I select a title for a particular image. This can come quickly and easily as I select a subject scene and prepare my composition or it can come from the sub-conscious working of my mind as I move on to other things. Sometimes it's a struggle and on few occasions it never comes.I've often wondered why one way one time and another way the next ... a exercise for perhaps another time, fuelled by a whisky or two.

 

The scenes and subjects of the forest, that I react to, regularly have a perceived persona or character. Anthropomorphism is long rooted in human culture and storytelling. Perhaps most frequently associated with animals, domestic or wild, it also has it's application to trees, so I am by no means alone in this.

This weeks photo, ' woodland spirit ', is a first addition to the collection and a good example. I'll be adding more as I re-discover them in my image library and out in the woods ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-06

Scanning though the library for files captured with a particular camera, I came across an image that I had marked for processing and never got back to ... that was in 2014 ;-)

Well, this weekend it was time. I recall the outing with a couple of friends where we explored the trails around Spencer Gorge in Dundas. I'm not even sure if the trails are still accessible as I'd heard part of the route was closed after landowners finally got fed up with the nonsense taking place in and around their home. (that is another story entirely and you can read about it here if you like). But when we explored on an October morning back in 2014 it was lovely.

I recall working to find the right composition of a scene with a fence skirting the edge of the trail with large overhanging branches for an old maple tree. It was during a time when I was experimenting with camera modes and setting and I screwed up a number of shots, overexposing by almost 2 stops ... talk about expose to the right. I really liked the scene and one composition I processed for an B&W sketch effect, marked it and others for further processing and that was it ... until now.

With the original capture overexposed,  I got the idea (from my recent buttercup image) to work with it an create a higher key, more ethereal version of the image and eventually worked up a B&W image and finally one corrected for the overexposure (ain't the new processing tools wonderful ;-)

I like 'em all. You decide if you like one better than the others.

Grand Old Maple (as captured)

Grand Old Maple (B&W)

Grand Old Maple (recovered)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-12-16

fog in the forest is simply magical ...

tangled forest

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-06-24

sketchy sycamore

Working through the creative doldrums with the use of software, plug-ins and presets in post processing ...

There are times when the creative flow seems to slow almost to a stop, never completely to a stop. It's always there, perhaps moving almost imperceptibly, but still moving.

Working with different processes can stir the flow, providing the needed catalyst. And sometimes it just takes time ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-01-08

There are times when this blog almost writes itself. And then there are times when if fights being written at all ...

It is the same with making images. There are times when the images almost make themselves, times when there is little or no effort required in selecting a location, grabbing a camera and going out to enjoy the process of creating images. Then there are times when the creative spirit fights to stay bottled up, times lacking the motivation to pick a subject or location and just go, make some images ...

With this weeks blog to be written, motivation to get out and photograph lacking, finding inspiration and a trip through the archive seemed the only answer.

a tree over a canal

Even though I may not make images every day, or even every week, seldom if ever a week goes by when I don't browse images online in magazines or in books on photography. So while I "wasn't feeling it" this past weekend, I was watching my social media stream and an image from Venice by another photographer caught my attention.

The canal scene reminded me of images I had made during a trip several years ago and instead of getting out to make some new images, I chose to use the time to work on one from the archive. Initially I set out to emulate the look of the photo from the media stream. Eventually that gave way to exploring my own vision, my own creativity, and a much different result ... a very satisfying experience.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-01-11

I have hundreds of images that were made while I was out for a hike or a morning walk. There is always something that catches my eye and since I usually have a camera with me, I'll stop to take a few shots. Many of these survive the initial edit and import to my master image catalogue but go no further. I find most lack the appeal of the original scene.

Lately, I've been working with the images from each outing to determine if I can bring out some of that original appeal. As an example, this image of a tree along a familiar route, is one that I have photographed many times using a number of different points of view . I've never really been satisfied with the results. This time I decided to spend some time with a recent version in post processing to see if I could do it justice.

winter vignette

Two processing techniques were used for this presentation, one removes the limited colour palette of the winter scene and reduces it to the basic graphic elements in black & white. The other, a vignette treatment, removes distraction around the edges of the frame and directs the viewer to the central elements of the scene in a manner that mimics how I "see" the actual scene. 

vignette
- a small, pleasing view
- a photograph, drawing, etc, with edges that are shaded off

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-11-23

I decided to explore some different trails outside of Guelph near Starkey Hill recently ... the experience of a new trail can provide just what the doctor ordered when I'm in the  photographic doldrums. This was a bit of that, but more about getting out, immersing myself in the forest.

With the colour of fall now deposited on the forest floor, moist, brown and returning nutrients to begin the cycle again, my eye turned to subject, form and pattern as I walked the unfamiliar route. Though I was close enough to hear nearby traffic from time to time, the periods of forest silence were incredible. They gave me cause to stop and simply take it all in, the wind through the limbs, birdsong overhead, squirrels scampering around ... but there was something else. At one point I had the feeling I was being watched ...

Watcher of the Woods

... and maybe I was. 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-10-19

Down with a cold that's kept me coughing, wheezing and sniffing since Friday, I couldn't muster the initiative to get out for anything this weekend let alone a hike, which would have been beautiful with the fall colours at their peak. Instead, I treated myself with meds, hot lemon water and as much rest as I could get in between coughing bouts. And during those times when I my head would clear from the cold and the meds, I clicked through my image library looking for something to use for this week's photo.

fall under a maple

A little over a week ago when fall colours were just beginning to arrive close to home, this image was made on my way out the driveway of an office I frequently work at. Some might possibly recognize the location without prompting but I doubt it. Why? Because as a photographer, I know first hand how photographers look at things differently. We see the colour, the depth, the quality of light and it's magical ability to transform scenes both familiar and not.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-07-27

The Peace of The North

I used the phrase "The Peace of The North" recently in an email to a friend when referring to an impending departure to the cottage. Thinking about it more, there really is a different feeling to everything when I am up north. I've been fortunate to experience it regularly in the couple of years since we got the cottage.

Even simple morning walks along the cottage road hold a peace that makes them quite a different experience from my walks at home. Everything just seems ... well, different. The sounds, the air, the light ... particularly morning and evening light. And what a great thing that is for photography, when the golden hours hold just a little more magic.

A morning walk with Murphy is always a great start to the day. His eager, bouncy approach to walks can be contagious, no matter what the weather and the location. When it's up north, with sunlight cresting over the trees, I'm eager too. I know that in the fresh morning air and warmth of the sun there more of "The Peace of The North" ...

Morning's Peace

... and I'll take all I can get, though Murphy my prefer that I stopped a little less to make photographs ;-)

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-03-16

... time for another walk in the woods, this time the local woods in Preservation Park, Guelph near home.

late winter beech

Saturday came and I found myself in Guelph instead of Tobermory. My regular photo buddies had both decided to pass on a photo outing for one reason or another and I decided at the last minute to switch up a scheduled visit with my mother for a misty morning outing in Preservation Park.

I love this place on mornings, particularly when there is a mist or fog moving through the bare trees in late winter / early spring. Saturday was just such a day so I geared up for the conditions, taking my waterproof 3in1 jacket, ice cleats, waterproof gloves and hat along with my photo equipment in a small backpack.

I didn't wander far, but I did wander quite a while. Sometimes alone, sometimes stopping to chat with others enjoying a walk their dogs. I made images with 3 different cameras. I used an ultra-wide angle 14mm on the 5DIII, a 70-300 tele-zoom on the 7DII, but it was the little EOS M with the 18-55 kit lens that I captured the above image with, one of my favourites form the outing.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-11-17

This year, snow has come early where I live, even earlier and in greater amount to one of my favourite places in this province, the Bruce. Lynn and I were treated with a fresh covering of snow and crisp air when we arrived at the cottage late Friday night.

For me this does not mark the "end" of warmer weather, it marks the "start" of refreshing morning walks, invigorating hikes and quiet peaceful times at the cottage. As usual, I was up before daylight both Saturday and Sunday, putting on the coffee, opening blinds to be greeted by the darkened canvas that would slowly brighten to develop the scene outside. A light blanket of snow, swaying trees, blustery wind and the rough cold water of the bay stirred anticipation of an early morning walk down the road. While others might grab a blanket and settle in to a spot by the fire, or some even return to bed, I was eager to get out and make some images in the snow covered freshness of late fall.


Once Lynn had risen to join me and Murphy had clearly indicated he wanted to get out, we traded the warmth of the cottage for the gentle nip of dawn under heavy skies. Breathing deeply in the clean crispness of the air, we all silently acknowledged how we love to experience the change of seasons. I don't know what I would do if I were elsewhere on this orb, away from natures changing moods.

in the bush

Though I was keen to make some images showing the first (for us) snow on the Bruce, it was a scene tucked away beside the road, were waters from fall rains still drained away, that pulled me to make an image in the bush.

DJE